Letters to a Daughter by By a Mother

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 1, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 30.

Letters to a Daughter

By By a Mother

By a Mother

“Mental Food”—Concentration—The One Important Book

MY DEAR DAUGHTER,—

Yours of last Sabbath is just at hand. This certainly calls for prompt response. Your father and I are more than pleased at the evidence of your development as shown by your letters. Your Sabbath letters are especially comforting to us. That you may keep so near the Father that He can fully lead you to your own, is our prayer.

It is with gratitude and just pride that we note the clarifying and enlarging of your ideals. Make them just as beautiful and noble as you are capable of making them, and they will grow more beautiful and more noble with your growth.

“Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you reach your destiny.”

The one ever-present condition of growth is nourishment. As with the body, so with the mind and heart. Food, and proper food, is imperative. As the body requires the different elements of food to give it well-rounded development, so the mind must have its food in proper variety and well selected. You are taught in a most scientific and practical manner the laws upon which depends the development of a strong and normal physique. No less immutable are the laws which govern the intellectual and spiritual development. As living souls made in the image of God, we are endowed with intelligence, reason, and will-power. With these gifts comes the responsibility for their right use. There is one condition which it seems to me is of prime importance to all mental development, and that is the power of concentration. You, my dear, I think, are in particular need of this most essential faculty. Without it nothing permanent, nothing really worth while, can be accomplished.

I trust you will not fail to make conscious effort to command this power. You can do it by forcing yourself to think of one thing for a short time. You will be surprised to find what a difficult task this is. Let the thing chosen be some small daily task, like the lacing of your shoes, or the combing of your hair. Put your mind upon it and resolutely hold it there. Let this exercise be oft repeated. Your ability to concentrate will be improved rapidly, and the strength gained utilizing thus those small tasks will count for your good mightily in larger things. Some one has said, “Mind wandering is soul suicide.” Knowing this, do not be guilty of this sin.

To break this habit, mother knows all too well, is a herculean task. I thank God, my darling, that you know a Source of infinite power. You have a personal acquaintance with One who has said, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Through Him we may do all things. Hence if you find it hard, take courage, and work on. The next all-important consideration is the character of the material out of which we must make our mental growth. I can not too strongly urge the greatest care in its selection.

First, I would emphasize the importance of a daily supply of food from the Word of Life,—that Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us, of the which if we shall eat we shall never hunger for the low, the sordid, the base. In it is not only the highest knowledge, but life and wisdom. In it are embodied all the uplifting things that ever have been or will be written, in whatsoever pleasing form they may appear. Take it first-hand, darling, regularly, daily. And your friends, if you yourself do not recognize it, will be astonished at your improvement. There is nourishment there that can not be had from any other source. It is passing strange that we who aspire to the larger life should ever neglect it.

Next in order of importance is reading along the lines of your chosen work. Just at present the requirements of your course demand it. But let this goal ever shine before you. You will be among the very first in your profession. In the light of what I have written, there is no limit to the possibilities of your development. The most you can know, the best you can do for the welfare of the suffering of earth, is not too much to require of yourself. To stand in this relation to your profession, untiring diligence in pursuit of knowledge is demanded. Your present course of study, exacting as it may be, is only preliminary; your education must continue through the years.

I have just renewed your subscription for the magazine which will prove of help to you in your chosen work. I trust you have taken time to look over every issue of the last year.

But I would not have you make the mistake of confining your reading to strictly professional lines, even now; for by so doing you will become warped in your habit of thought, and so defeat your own purpose. “Variety is the spice of life.” It is more. It is absolutely necessary to well-rounded development.

One must keep in touch with the fast moving world around us. This can be done with comparatively little reading if one knows how. I am glad the information has been provided for you in the requirements of your course. The daily newspaper is said to be the greatest educator of the day, yet the most it contains is worthless. Your superintendent sets the estimate about right when he requires fifteen minutes’ daily reading. The abstract you must make of your newspaper reading is a good test for your powers of concentration.

Later, when you have more time, a good, honest magazine should enter into your regular reading.

Fourthly, we must learn to see, to utilize the world of books about us. You can not give out continually, as you will be called upon to do, as indeed every one living is called upon to do if one take his place in the world—I say you can not give out words of comfort and wisdom, and thoughts that build, unless you yourself are receiving all the time. One of the most helpful preachers I have ever listened to, one who spoke before the same congregation for many years, ever giving them something new and helpful from the pulpit as well as in his daily walks among them, made it a rule of his life to read one new book every week. The nurse as well as the preacher has need of a broad education. Select your reading carefully. Seek to become acquainted with your authors. Remember that men do not gather figs of thistles or grapes of thorns. A stream can not rise higher than its source. There is a great deal of literature afloat in the world that is worse than useless. It is a veritable poison. You will find, later on, that much of the sickness from which people suffer—I dare almost say the larger part—is due to wrong thinking. And those who are physically ill are far outnumbered by those who are mentally and spiritually ill. It is conservative to say that a large proportion of this suffering, this unhappiness, this slaying of home and loved ones, this loss to the world financial and spiritual, this great groaning burden of creation, which you, my dear, have dedicated your life to help lift, is the result of wrong thinking. And this is in a very large measure due to the taking in of a poisonous mental food. Therefore, daughter, seek to choose wisely, for your own sake and for the sake of those to whom your life will be devoted. Of course it is desirable that you be conversant with the mountain peaks of history, past and current,—the lives and deeds of the world’s best workers,—and the works of our best authors. But I have found much concentrated mental food obtainable in some of the many booklets written in a pleasing and impressive style, containing the essence of a great vital truth.

Do you remember in my library, my shelf of “Spiritual Uplifts”? I am sending you one to-day. It is “Blessed Be Drudgery.” It will help you to see in the daily round of your allotted task God’s work for you. And this, by the way, is, I think, a pretty good test of the value of any book. The author of the booklet, like

many others writing in this age of spiritual awakening, has touched life at the cross-roads, and has learned that the knockings he heard in his own are but echoes of those in his brother's breast.

There is one thing in the choice of books about which I must warn you. Much of the literature written in the past five years, so fascinating because containing so much of truth, beautifully expressed, is nevertheless dangerous. It is dangerous because of the subtle reasoning which makes gods of men, outside of the thought of the gift of sonship through Christ. This false philosophy has swept thousands from their moorings into—what shall I say? We know there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. The truth taught in these books is borrowed from the Author of the universe, and applied truth always gives power. O, my child, let me entreat you to study to know God and His Word. Measure all else by His standard. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Know this,—the promise of wisdom to each individual who seeks it: The beginning of wisdom is the fear—love—of God.

Drive a few stakes fast and hard; namely, God the Creator, the Re-creator, the Father of love, in which all His works are wrought; Christ, the only-begotten Son, who was given for our salvation; newness of life, eternal life, through His life, death, and resurrection, the life beginning now and here. These vital principles, forever settled in your heart and understanding, will keep you from the deceptions of Satan, with which if it were possible he would deceive the very elect.

My letter is already too long. May the living truth ever be your guide.

Your loving Mother.